For a lot of casual golfers, walking up and finding the golf ball in the bunker, is enough to make them curl up in a fetal position and want to cry for their parents. On my off days, it certainly isn’t the one place I would like to be. This year more than most, I have come undone in a bunker or two struggling to get out. Luckily this is only on rare occasions.
Even the professionals can do it as we saw with Rory McIlroy during a practice round for The Open Championship at Royal Troon. He took six shots to get out of the bunker. Yes you read that correctly, six shots, to finally reach the green of the small 8th Postage Stamp hole.
Some of my biggest complaints with bunkers are:
- Walking up only to find the ball plugged in the bunker face
- Finding the ball in someones footprint, having failed to rake the sand in the bunker
- A combination of the above with the ball in a footprint in the bunker face
Interestingly my attitudes towards bunkers and their appearance has changed over the years. I remember playing years ago at Mt Lawley Golf Club, where I was critical of how the face of a few of the bunkers looked. Not being covered with compacted sand, looking pristine. Well times have changed and I would take the look any day. It would be less maintenance for the golf club, but also means the ball rolls down back into the more relatively flat area, where a stance can be taken without causing damage. Yes having a ball plug in the bunker face is not good news for green keepers. To hit the ball you have to stand on the face, causing indents, which the next golfer may find, steam rolling the effect.
Greats of the game have called for the bunkers to be more of an obstacle, rather than a target. On many professional tours, the sand traps are preferred to the surrounding rough, as they can control the ball better from the sand. These are usually raked quite smooth. Back in 2006, Jack Nicklaus requested the PGA to have bunkers be raked to with furrows. Leaving a small track which the ball may end up, making the shot much harder. Unfortunately this experiment was short lived.
Pot bunkers around the 5th green at NSW Golf Club
We know some of the bunkers around the World are truly evil. How else would they end up with names like Hell, coffin or Himalayas. Yet even those called church pews or the simple pot bunker can be quite a tricky place to find yourself. Some of these are so small, you can’t even stand in them, when trying to play your shot. In Australia, NSW Golf Club has some prime examples of the dreaded pot bunker. I recall one of my playing partners there declaring “They just aren’t fair. That’s not golf”.
Purists will say, the bunkers are a place to be punished. They are a hazard and you shouldn’t be in them to start with. I do agree, but please fellow golfers, rake the footprints when you exit.
